Interview by Kris Peters
Music has a way of providing comfort in a wide variety of ways.
To the general music consumer, that comfort is a more personal enjoyment of the music, the lyrics, and the message, but the cathartic nature of music also extends to those making it.
When Fuming Mouth vocalist Mark Whelan was diagnosed with life-threatening Acute Myeloid Leukemia he could have accepted and reacted to the news in a number of ways.
But he chose his band and music.
And that option helped him harness his thoughts and problems into a body of work that, although already close to completion, would provide support, encouragement and hope in his time of need.
Some of the tracks were reworked and rewritten to reflect his new battle, but mostly Whelan turned his potential life negatives into a constructive force of nature that helped drive his creative output while also strengthening his resolve.
That product was unleashed on the world last week when Fuming Mouth released their second album Last Day Of Sun, a triumphant sonic release of hope and courage against seemingly insurmountable odds.
HEAVY caught up with Whelan, drummer James Davis and bass player Pat Merson to find out more.
"It's been good, for the most part," Merson nodded when asked how fans have responded to the album.
"It seems like the live reception has been good," Davis added. "I've seen people singing along to the songs and reacting to the music so that's been cool."
We press the boys to tell us more about Last Day Of Sun musically and what they were going for with it.
"Just something really heavy, really brutal," Whelan replied, "truly metal and beyond just death metal into worlds of heavy metal. Beyond that into some more melodic territory that you might hear, but ultimately bringing it back to big bands like Judas Priest with big guitar solos and making it more of a dynamic album than just one low tunes brutal death song after another."
In the full interview, the boys talk about the two singles released and if they are a good representation of the album as a whole, Mark's battle with leukemia and how it impacted the album, what message they hope people will take from the album, recording with Kurt Ballou in Salem and what effect that had on the finished product, the early days of Fuming Mouth, their initial vision for the band and how it has changed since, live shows and more.